Albus Potter and the Necromancer's Stone
by KFRkitkatKFR
Summary: The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well...or was it? It's Albus Severus Potter's first year at Hogwarts and trouble is not only brewing for him, but for the entire wizarding world... Join Albus as he tries to make friends and to overcome some evil wizards- and his mean brother James- along the way. (Okay, I'm not the best at these summaries.)
1. Author's Note :D

This is just a little introduction about who I've made up and who I haven't. For teachers and parents, it should be obvious, but this is just for the kids.

Harry and Malfoy's children have been named and described by JK.

All of the children of the Weasleys have been named by JK, but I've made up their appearances. This is also true of Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, Luna's twin boys.

Aoise Harte and Zin Belododia are based on real people. Their appearances, personalities, families etc. have been made up by their respective selves.

All of the other characters have been made up by me!

If you're unsure about anything, Google it.

This isn't going to be a 'this is what they look like and this is their character and this is their deepest fear and this is their favourite shape of pasta' thing, but seeing as there are so many Weasley grandkids, I just wanted to say here who's who so that it doesn't all get über confusing when you meet them. I'm drawing a family tree, and that's how I visualise the characters- when I finish it, I'll find a way to show you guys so you can see what they all look like.

Bill and Fleur had three children- Victoire, Dominique and Louis. In my story, Victoire is in 7th year, Dominique is in 5th year and Louis is in 3rd year.

Charlie remained a single pringle with his dragons.

Percy married Audrey. We don't know her surname or whether she was a muggle, but they had two children- Molly and Lucy. In my story, Molly's in 6th year and Lucy's in 4th year.

Fred, I'm sure, watched over everybody in heaven, and probably threw George's ear at his nieces and nephews in the dark to scare them.

George married Angelina Johnson! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! How fangirly awesome is that? They had two children- Fred, named after a very special angel, and Roxanne. In here, Fred's a 5th year and Roxanne is a 3rd year.

And incase you've forgotten, Ron and Hermione had Rose and Hugo and Ginny and Harry had James, Albus and Lily. James is in 3rd year here and Albus and Rose are in their 1st year. Hugo and Lily will go in two years time- they aren't at school yet because this continues from Nineteen Years Later. Speaking of which….


	2. Prologue- Nineteen Years Later

**So this was written by JKR (apart from the last line) and I'm mainly posting it to refresh your memories! xxx**

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was crisp as an apple, and as the little family bobbed across the rumbling road toward the great sooty station, the fumes of car exhausts and the breath of pedestrians sparkled like cobwebs in the cold air. Two large cages tattled on top of the laden trolleys the parents were pushing; the owls inside them hooted indignantly, and the redheaded girl trailed fearfully behind her brothers, clutching her father's arm.

"It won't be long, and you'll be going too," Harry told her.

"Two years," sniffed Lily. "I want to go now!"

The commuters stared curiously at the owls as the family wove its way toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, Albus's voice drifted back to Harry over the surrounding clamour; his sons had resumed the argument they had started in the car.

"I won't! I won't be a Slytherin!"

"James, give it a rest!" said Ginny.

"I only said he might be," said James, grinning at his younger brother. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slytherin."

But James caught his mother's eye and fell silent. The five Potters approached the barrier. With a slightly cocky look over his shoulder at his younger brother, James took the trolley from his mother and broke into a run. A moment later, he had vanished.

"You'll write to me, won't you?" Albus asked his parents immediately, capitalising on the momentary absence of his brother.

"Every day, if you want us to," said Ginny.

"Not every day," said Albus quickly, "James says most people only get letters from home about once a month."

"We wrote to James three times a week last year," said Ginny.

"And you don't want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts," Harry put in. "He likes a laugh, your brother."

Side by side, they pushed the second trolley forward, gathering speed. As they reached the barrier, Albus winced, but no collision came. Instead, the family emerged onto platform nine and three-quarters, which was obscured by thick white steam that was pouring from the scarlet Hogwarts Express. Indistinct figures were swarming through the mist, into which James had already disappeared.

"Where are they?" asked Albus anxiously, peering at the hazy forms they passed as they made their way down the platform.

"We'll find them," said Ginny reassuringly.

But the vapour was dense, and it was difficult to make out anybody's faces. Detached from their owners, voices sounded unnaturally loud. Harry thought he heard Percy discoursing loudly on broomstick regulations, and was quite glad of the excuse not to stop and say hello.

"I think that's them, Al," said Ginny suddenly.

A group of four people emerged from the mist, standing alongside the very last carriage. Their faces only came into focus when Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Albus had drawn right up to them.

"Hi," said Albus, sounding immensely relieved.

Rose, who was already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes, beamed at him.

"Parked all right, then?" Ron asked Harry. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confund the examiner."

"No, I didn't," said Hermione, "I had complete faith in you."

"As a matter of fact, I did Confund him," Ron whispered to Harry, as together they lifted Albus's trunk and owl onto the train. "I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let's face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that."

Back on the platform, they found Lily and Hugo, Rose's younger brother, having an animated discussion about which House they would be sorted into when they finally went to Hogwarts.

"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron, "but no pressure."

"Ron!"

Lily and Hugo laughed, but Albus and Rose looked solemn.

"He doesn't mean it," said Hermione and Ginny, but Ron was no longer paying attention. Catching Harry's eye, he nodded covertly to a point some fifty yards away. The steam had thinned for a moment, and three people stood in sharp relief against the shifting mist.

"Look who it is."

Draco Malfoy was standing there with his wife and son, a dark coat buttoned up to his throat. His hair was receding somewhat, which emphasised the pointed chin. The new boy resembled Draco as much as Albus resembled Harry. Draco caught sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny staring at him, nodded curtly, and turned away again.

"So that's little Scorpius," said Ron under his breath. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Ron, for heaven's sake," said Hermione, half stern, half amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, sorry," said Ron, but unable to help himself, he added, "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Grandpa Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."

"Hey!"

James had reappeared; he had divested himself of his trunk, owl, and trolley, and was evidently bursting with news.

"Teddy's back there," he said breathlessly, pointing back over his shoulder into the billowing clouds of steam. "Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!"

He gazed up at the adults, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction.

"Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"

"You interrupted them?" said Ginny. "You are so like Ron."

"-and he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away. He's snogging her!" James added as though worried he had not made himself clear.

"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!" whispered Lily ecstatically. "Teddy would really be part of the family then!"

"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week," said Harry "Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?"

"Yeah!" said James enthusiastically. "I don't mind sharing with Al- Teddy could have my room!"

"No," said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished."

He checked the battered old watch that had once been Fabian Prewett's.

"It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."

"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.

"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"

"But you know Neville!"

James rolled his eyes.

"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love..."

Shaking his head at his mother's foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a kick at Albus.

"See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."

"I thought they were invisible? You said they were invisible!" but James merely laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug, then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave, then sprint away up the corridor to find his friends.

"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," Harry told Albus. "They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats."

Ginny kissed Albus goodbye.

"See you at Christmas."

"Bye, Al," said Harry as his son hugged him. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone till you're learned how. And don't let James wind you up."

"What if I'm in Slytherin?"

The whisper was for his father alone, and Harry knew that only the moment of departure could have forced Albus to reveal how great and sincere that fear was.

Harry crouched down so that Albus's face was slightly above his own. Alone of Harry's three children, Albus had inherited Lily's eyes.

"Albus Severus," Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

"But just say-"

"-Then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."

"Really?"

"It did for me," said Harry.

He had never told any of his children that before, and he saw the wonder in Albus's face when he said it. But how the doors were slamming all along the scarlet train, and the blurred outlines of parents swarming forward for final kisses, last-minute reminders, Albus jumped into the carriage and Ginny closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned toward Harry.

"Why are they all staring?" demanded Albus as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students.

"Don't let it worry you," said Ron. "It's me, I'm extremely famous."

Albus, Rose, Hugo, and Lily laughed. The train began to more, and Harry walked alongside it, watching his son's thin face, already ablaze with excitement. Harry kept smiling and waving, even though it was like a little bereavement, watching his son glide away from him...

The last trace of steam evaporated in the autumn air. The train rounded a corner. Harry's hand was still raised in farewell.

"He'll be alright," murmured Ginny.

As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absentmindedly and touched the lightning scar on his forehead.

"I know he will."

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

_** Or was it...?**_


	3. Chapter One- The Weasley Compartment

Chapter One_**-**_ The Weasley Compartment

**Here's chapter one! Sorry, there's a lot of character description in here and not much in the way of plot, but I did want to start you off knowing a bit about everyone as I've imagined them. Please tell me if this is better than My Immortal. I would dearly love the answer to be yes, although seeing as MI is the best thing on ye olde internet, I fear it may be the opposite. And about MI…I'm sorry, when I realised that Dom could technically be classed as 'goffik', I couldn't resist spurting into a description of her clothes, which hopefully aren't as slutty as Enoby's. I just thought it would be a fitting tribute to Tara to describe them in minute detail.**

**I can't believe that in my first chapter I am paying homage to My Immortal. Oh well. Please comment! It's not the best thing in the world, but here goes…**

Ten hands were waving out of the Weasley compartment window. Their owners came in various shapes and sizes- some short, some tall, some thin, some fat, some dark-skinned, some light-skinned, some dark-haired, some light-haired, and none with the traditional Weasley red hair and freckles. Two of them weren't even surnamed Weasley, but all ten were Weasleys and very proud that they belonged to this renowned wizarding clan.

The shortest, thinnest, palest and darkest-haired was currently being squished into the wall by his brother, although that wasn't breaking his grin, and his hand was flapping eagerly out of the window. This could be the last he'd see of Mummy, Daddy, Lily and Teddy until Christmas- that was _if_ he made it to Christmas. James had told him all about the dangerous and violent monsters, the endless homework that left him so tired that Mummy and Daddy had to wait on him hand and foot in the holidays, and the paintings that were predisposed to picking on pupils. It sounded like Albus might not survive the week, let alone seven years.

But no, Albus was determined to show true Gryffindor bravery and battle through.

The Hogwarts express began to chug fluffy white steam and amble the first few inches out of King's Cross Station. Albus waved with increased fervour at his family. As much as he wanted to go to Hogwarts, he didn't really want to leave them.

Ashamed at himself, Albus closed his eyes to Mummy consoling a sobbing Lily and Daddy smiling and Granny and Grandpa Weasley waving with uncharacteristic and decidedly un-rheumatic vigour (probably at the prospect of how thrilled Albus and the others would be at their lovingly prepared corned beef sandwiches), as he simply couldn't face the final farewell. When he opened his eyes, lashes scratching the lenses of his glasses, a cloud of white steam had engulfed the window. The steam was lost in the wind after a sharp turn and the lush green fields and uninterrupted blue skies made Albus suspect that the train had somehow magicked itself out of London.

Albus tried to concentrate on the rolling hills, but his father's final words to him were still reeling in his mind. So the sorting hat had considered putting him in Slytherin...and Dad had forced it to change its decision...perhaps he could try this...but….

Severus. Albus had never known who the Severus he was named after was. _And now he still didn't._ The two facts he had just learnt were that Severus was a Hogwarts headmaster, and that he was a Slytherin. Yet his father respected him because of his bravery.

Albus couldn't help but think this was rather unusual. A Slytherin? Brave? Respected? As head of the Auror office at the Ministry, Harry Potter would often come home spurting wild tales about 'Slytherins', a term clearly used to mean 'Dark Wizards'. Indeed, Albus had some vague notion that his father had been involved in an encounter (a minor skirmish, probably) with an evil wizard of some sort when he was younger. So why on earth would he be named after this- _this kind of man_?

Albus shook his head from side to side to force the thought out of his mind. He didn't want to think about that, not now when his first year at Hogwarts was beginning. So he thought about his family instead.

There was one drawback to being a Weasley, Albus mused, and this was that the family was so large that there were so many sides for so many arguments that Albus wasn't involved in that he found himself losing track of who was friends with who when everybody was talking about what. There was already some form of squabbling going on. Dom had withdrawn into her scream music and Albus wished that he too had some way of escaping the manic family.

"Lucy, _I_ was going to sit there!"

Lucy, an obstinate fourth-year with brown pigtails, stopped filing her nails and looked up. "Well then, Louis, you should have sat down first!"

"But Luce, I _bagsied_ that seat! Look, that's my coat you're sitting on!"

"What, this horrible green thing?"

"It's my coat and it's my seat."

"Says who?" Lucy began to file her nails again.

"Luce, just stop being so rude and give me the bloody seat back."

"Why should I?"

"Lucy, it's a window seat! That's why I put my jacket there!"

"But I'm sitting here now! And I'm older!"

One step away, another argument was taking place. "Roxanne, where's my prefect badge?"

James and Roxanne, their eyes full of mischief, were leaning against the door.

"No idea, Freddie."

"Not a clue."

Fred rubbed his short black curls and sighed with the air of somebody deprived of their life's greatest treasure. Although his sister Roxanne had inherited all of her father George's mischievous nature (Albus' uncle George was the prosperous owner of the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes joke shop franchise), Fred took after his mother, Auntie Angelina, who was far more serious. Auntie Angelina did like a good laugh, though, and Fred had no sense of humour at all. Now in his fifth year, Fred had been appointed Gryffindor prefect- and, to nobody's surprise, Uncle Percy had been tutoring him over the summer on the finer details of prefecthood. Fred had been following Uncle Percy's every word with the utmost diligence, to his father's blatant outrage, and had been practising the role of prefect around the house. Three weeks into the holidays, when Fred had introduced a new system to ration the household's usage of toilet paper, Uncle George had had enough and stormed into his brother's house, demanding that he end the imperius curse that he had placed on his son. Percy, however, was at that time taking tea with the Minister of Magic, and the shock that George's sudden breaking-and-entering gave him caused his tea to fly out of his hands and onto Mr. Shacklebolt's new robes. This put a rather abrupt end to Fred's prefect lessons, as, despite the Minister's pleas that he _really was perfectly fine_, Percy spent the rest of the summer writing long and rambling letters of apology to Mr. Shacklebolt. Meanwhile, George contrived to use as many sheets of lavatory roll as he liked and _never_ to rip it along the perforations, and Fred kept at his studies.

"You've got it. I know you've got it."

"Freddie, I told you. I have no idea where that thing is. Now why don't you just drop this whole thing and go to the prefects' carriage with Molly?"

The mention of the p-word seemed to cheer Fred up considerably, and Molly, a girl with curly brown hair and a smile for everyone, was indeed standing by the door and waiting for Fred. He puffed up his chest pompously and left the compartment, giving everyone in it full view of the prefect badge that was pinned to his bottom.

"I am glad 'ee iz gone…'ee is so pleezed wiz 'eemself, now 'ee iz a prefect, I theenk…"

Victoire's conversational input was not appreciated by anyone. She had the same outsider status as her mother, mainly because of her accent. A couple of months after she was born, her father, Uncle Bill, had gone back to Egypt for nearly two years to work. He came back and found he had a daughter who was able to speak French, but no English. Auntie Phlegm insisted that she had done the right thing (_"Vy did you vant her to learn Eenglish? She did not need any Eenglish, because I vos speeking to her only in French!"_) but Uncle Bill had declared a state of emergency and immediately packed her off to Granny Weasley's. It was too late, however- French was her first language, and after Granny handed her back to Fleur a week later with a few disjointed phrases and her mother's promise that she would speak to her in English, Victoire only had her mother's accent to copy. When Dom and Louis arrived, Uncle Bill made Auntie Fleur speak only in French to them and he spoke in English. There was no doubt that Victoire could speak in a legitimate English accent by now, but everybody knew she was milking it for all she was worth.

Victoire even looked like her mother. All of Bill's children had their mother's pale blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but aside from that they didn't look similar at all. Victoire had all of her mother's features and her graceful elegance. She wore her hair loose and it tumbled almost to her waist. Victoire was well aware that she was very beautiful, but she was not quite so aware that her beauty was very much only skin-deep, and inside she was an annoying little thing who always expected people would love her enough to give her her own way.

Fifteen-year-old Dominique had no respect for her sister whatsoever. She listened to music day in, day out. Once, she had let Albus listen to some of her music. The electric guitars were so loud Albus thought his head was going to burst, and simply _listening_ to the singer had made Albus reach for the throat lozenges. She was never seen without her iPod, and she had tricked Uncle Percy into putting a charm on it which meant she could use it in school without it going haywire, like most electrical devices did around Hogwarts. Dom's shoulder-length hair was always messy and tousled and her eyes were ringed with so much black makeup that her eyes looked very bright white and blue and so wide it was as if she was one of the zombies that her father had to deal with out in Egypt. Other than the green fang earring her father had given her for her tenth birthday, Dom did not possess an item of clothing that was not black. Today she was wearing black jeans, black Docs and an open black zip-up hoody with a tight black shirt underneath with the swearing curse written on it in red (the swearing curse was a curse which made you say very inappropriate words at very inappropriate times, like when you were handing in your History of Magic homework or when your mother asked you to pass the Brussels sprouts- Albus knew because James had cast it on him once and Albus really saw no reason for such an abominable thing to be glorified).

Louis was thirteen and had longish, floppy hair and eyes that sparkled with mischief. He was also one third of the Weasley Marauders, the gang of miscreants which also included Rox and James. Only in their third year, the Weasley Marauders were the trio of troublemakers-in-chief who succeeded in annoying the whole of Hogwarts. Roxanne was something of the voice of reason in the group- she was definitely the most daring, but often the boys looked at a situation and were more eager to act than think. Rox was very pretty like her mother and had dark brown eyes, brown skin and black braids tied with colourful beads. She liked uplifting colours and all of her clothes were bright and mismatched (Roxanne was an advocate of Not Wearing Black because it was morbid, depressing and drab and frequently got into arguments with Dom), she wrote in different coloured inks and she covered all of her schoolbooks that were black in fancy wrapping paper. She had wanted to dye her hair over the summer (each individual braid would be a different colour) but her mother had insisted that this would be going a step too far. Also, she had realised that this would mean bleaching her hair, which led to her new belief that nobody should be putting harsh chemicals on their hair or skin and anybody who put such substances on her face (i.e. Dom) deserved to receive the wrath of Roxanne.

The leader of the Weasley Marauders was undoubtedly James, who was tall and black-haired with his mother's sharp brown eyes and his father's glasses. James was also fast on his way to becoming school bad-boy. He had natural rebellious charm and, from what his mother stroppily recounted at the breakfast table every time a letter was received from school, all the girls seemed to adore him. This was not, again according to mummy, good for him, because it apparently made him cocky. Privately, Albus didn't think any degree of attention from girls could make James any cockier than he was now, but every time he voiced his opinion it seemed to be lost.

That was Albus summed up: lost. Not physically, just that he was always the underdog, being the shy middle child between loud, brash, clever and confident James and loud, temperamental (_at_ _nine_ _years_ _old!_), clever and confident Lily. Every time Albus did something to warrant praise, it was brushed aside with a pat on the back. Albus was, essentially, bullying material. And James was not one to miss a target.

Albus found his ever-messy hair being ruffled awkwardly, presumably by his brother. He pretended to smile feebly for a minute, then gave up, because it simply wasn't working. Albus had told James countless times to stop doing that, but it was as if James could switch off his ears at will.

"Ready for school, you two?"

Rose nodded enthusiastically, her bushy brown curls bobbing up and down.

"And you, Al?"

"Don't call me Al," said Albus, frowning, arms crossed and turning away from James.

"What's wrong with Al?" Al, Al, Al, Alalalalalalal-"

"You said you wouldn't! Stop it! I'll tell Mummy-"

"_You'll write and tell Mummy, will you?_"James turned to Roxanne to explain. "Little Al still calls Harry and Ginny _Mummy_ and _Daddy_, don't you, Al?"

"Aww! That is soooo sweet!"

James grinned. "I know, right? Cutesy little Al-"

"Stop it! You're so mean!"

"James," said Victoire, looking up from her book, "I am theenking that Albus ees not liking the jokes and 'ee ees vanting you to stop." Having said her bit, Victoire went back to her book and showed no signs of looking up to help Albus again.

"Tell them about the acromantulas, James," said Louis.

"Ac-acromantulas?" stammered Albus.

James did a very poor impression of an acromantula which had Rox, Rose and Louis in peals of laughter. Albus wasn't laughing, however. Eleven years of teasing and practical bullying (_"It's only a bit of fun, honest- he likes it, don't you, Al?"_) meant James' jests didn't seem funny any longer.

While Albus got caught up in his own thoughts about being eaten by acromantulas, Rose kept chatting to James. Rose wasn't paying attention to Albus. Albus' 'best friend' had forgotten he existed and was laughing with James and Rox. Everything James said to her that would have hurt Albus to the core, Rose threw back at him with a grin. Albus wished he could do that. Rose had just succeeded in demoralising him even more.

"Cheer up, Al," chirped Roxanne, sympathetic at his solemn face, finally acknowledging his presence twenty minutes later when the acromantula conversation had died down. Albus smiled, but he couldn't see any reason to be cheerful.

Feeling sure that this train journey was not going to be as fun-filled as he had been hoping, Albus retrieved a bashed and well-loved issue of The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle from his case and absorbed himself in a particularly thrilling escapade of Martin's, where he had been involved in a high-speed car chase with the muggle police and was now holding one of them ransom. He only looked up when, while heroic wizards disguised as muggles came in undercover, Louis started talking about houses.

"So, you two'll both be in Gryffindor, right?" he grinned.

Rose squirmed in her seat. "Well...I suppose...maybe..."

James looked affronted. "What do you mean, maybe?" His voice had taken on a definite hostile edge. Albus knew that this was a James who was not to be messed with. But it seemed Rose didn't know this.

"Well...perhaps Ravenclaw would be okay too..." Rose muttered.

"But hold on, you want to be in Gryffindor, right?" James demanded, tones of anger blossoming in his voice.

"Umm…."

"_Do you or don't you_?_"_

"Let it go, James," said Roxanne subduingly. "If she wants to be Ravenclaw, that's fine-"

"I never said that," said Rose quickly, turning white. "Never said anything."

"I want to be in Gryffindor," piped up Albus, hoping this would get him some credit with his brother and offer a way into the conversation. He was ignored. James was clearly outraged at the suggestion that Rose might actually want to be in a different house, and Roxanne kept trying to calm him down. He eventually got Rose to promise to be a Gryffindor, which satisfied him.

Five minutes later and the conversation was already dead, and the expression on Rose's face was one of relief. James was just making a remark intending to be witty about how he was sure that the conversation in Lysander's carriage would be scintillating when there was an almighty jolt. The cases went flying and the owls flapped helplessly in their cages, which tumbled off the shelves. Dom's iPod jolted off her lap and the earbuds disconnected, plunging the room into an electric guitar solo which could probably be heard at the other end of the train. Martin Miggs, recovering from being poorly confunded by one of the wizards and now waking up on a bed in a muggle shopping centre with no idea what had happened for the past hour, skidded under the seat and was trapped there by one of Victoire's five cases, another one of which fell on top of Al. This was really not his lucky day, not that he'd ever had many of those.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Why did we stop?"

"My 'air, my 'air!"

"Dom, turn off that noise so I can think."

"Can someone free my owl? Look, he's trapped!"

"Noise? This is way better than the rubbish _you _listen to!"

"Zeese train drivers, zey do not theenk. Zey brake ze train vizout theenking zat it may damage my 'air. My 'air is vairy beautiful, and naturally eet needs to be taken care of. Quite frankly, I am ze best looking theeng in zees whole train. Zey need to have more consideration for-"

"Victoire, shut up. Dom, shut that bloke up. He can't sing for drooble's best blowing gum."

The music paused, but peace was by no means restored.

"Why d'you recon the train stopped like that?" asked Rox. "I wonder if there's some sort of emergency?"

A large and very devious-looking smile was plastered to James' face. "Only one way to find out…"

"ATTENTION, STUDENTS!"

The gruff voice, presumably that of the driver, coming through the loudspeaker, was such a shock that they all jumped. Victoire immediately smoothed down her hair and Lucy made a loud comment about Dom showing some emotion on her face for once.

"PLEASE REFRAIN FROM PANICKING. WE ARE WORKING TO MAINTAIN CONTROL IN THIS SITUATION. IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR COMPARTMENTS."

James tilted his head, smiling even more. "We can work with that."

"ANY STUDENT WHO DOES SO WILL FACE DETENTION FOR A MONTH AND THE LOSS OF THREE HUNDRED HOUSE POINTS." There was a high buzz of static as the driver finished the speech.

"James," said Rox, "you are _not_ going out there. I mean it. Three hundred points! Before term has even begun!"

"No, don't worry," said James, still grinning but his eyes fixed on Albus. "_I_ won't…."


End file.
